Merce Cunningham company star Holley Farmer: “When newer dancers come into [a piece], it’s like clockwork: Everyone cries because you can’t see anything and the material is very technically challenging and you’re doing it in the dark sometimes or all of a sudden there’s a light in your face and you don’t know where it’s coming from … [You’re crying] because you realize that you’re probably going to be fighting for your life onstage instead of the other things that you try to do.”